Last summer, it seemed as if the future of football was shifting. Almost out of the blue, big-name players from top European Leagues began departing on masse. Their destination: Saudi Arabia.
Karim Benzema, Neymar Jr, N’golo Kante. Roberto Firminho, Riyadh Mahrez, Sadio Mane. The list went on. All following in the golden-laced footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, who had transferred to Al-Nassr just months before.
The majority of these were past the peak of their powers, those looking for a healthy retirement fund. Not concerned with the morality of where it came from. The outliers of players at their peak, such as Ruben Neves, opting for the switch raised a few eyebrows. Was this the realigning of football’s centre of power? One funded directly by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund: the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
€977 million was spent on transfer fees alone, second only to the Premier League at €1.29 billion over the same period. That is withstanding wages, a figure reportedly over €1 billion. Ronaldo himself earning €185 million a year.
A year on, has this investment succeeded?
In-person attendance figures are less than impressive. In a season that saw Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr easily swept aside by the unbeaten Al-Hilal, the average ground was only a third full. The average attendance being 8,321, 10% down on the previous year. Comparatively, this stands below England and Germany’s Third Divisions (9,698 and 9649 respectively) and below that of France, Italy and Spain’s second divisions (8648, 8989 and 10,497 respectively).
But that doesn’t paint the whole picture. A picture that changed drastically in June 2023. Last summer, it was announced the PIF would be taking a 75% stake in four founding members of the Saudi Pro League (SPL): Al-Alhi, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr.
Previously, until 2021, all clubs were under the guise of the government’s Ministry of Sport. A recent change in law opted to open the clubs up to privatisation and…
Source link : https://www.footballparadise.com/the-saudi-pro-league-much-ado-about-nothing/
Author : Gabriel Stewart
Publish date : 2024-08-06 13:24:56
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